Conventional egg and fruit trays, and the contents therein, often encounter significant breakage and/or damage during delivery and storage. Care must be exercised in the collecting, processing, and handling to prevent damage to the fruits, vegetables and other food items including eggs.
The majority of fresh eggs sold in the United States are sold in 12 count and 18 count egg cartons through the retail grocery channel. However, large volumes of eggs and similar items have become more popular to consumers, resulting in a need for larger packages that can hold increased quantities of eggs to be sold by traditional grocery stores and other retail outlets. Thus, in order to stay competitive, grocers and warehouse retailers now require larger package sizes for eggs and other produce (e.g. eighteen (18) count egg tray containers and higher), but do not have a large floor area for storage and/or display. Many stores use molded fiber trays (known as “filler flats”) and single faced corrugated sleeves to accommodate large volumes of items. For example, such assemblies can be used for a 30 count package, or a 36 count package. The retailers stack several egg trays which can be insecure and unstable if not stacked properly. In addition, conventional egg packaging systems do not nest within each other, and thus a large volume of retail space may be required to display and store the egg trays.
It is also preferable to provide a system that prevents tampering of the items contained therein. For example, conventional packaged egg containers can be opened in a retail environment by consumers, which exposes the eggs to breakage.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,276,531, which is incorporated in its entirety by reference herein, discloses a molded fiber nestable egg tray packaging system that includes a transparent lid. The transparent lid includes upwardly extending conical shaped elements and a downwardly shaped rim having notches that assist in securing the lid to a filler flat. A shrink film band is placed around the filler flat with lid applied to secure the lid during handling and make the finished product “tamper evident”. The transparent lid provides lateral stability for trays when stacked, and avoids the increasing cost that results from the eggs being damaged or broken. Although the nestable egg tray packaging system disclosed by this patent is a significant advance in the field of packaging systems, when used in a display the transparent lid may cause a consumer to reject an entire egg tray package because one egg visible through the lid appears to contain a minor defect. In addition, transparent lids can be relatively expensive to manufacture.
Accordingly, it is desirable to produce a low cost, secure and stable egg tray system that overcomes the shortcomings of the prior art, while still accommodating an increased amount of eggs that can be safely and securely stacked and stored.